When it rains . . .

Severe flooding around the world over the past two years seems to support the
idea that rainfall is coming in more intense bursts. For example, Mike Hulme and
colleagues from the University of East Anglia announced this week that British
winters are becoming wetter (International Journal of Climatology, vol
20, p 347). “The heaviest daily rainfalls in Britain now contribute about twice
as much to total winter rainfall as they did in the early 1960s,” says
Hulme.